Christmas Gingerbread Roll Cake
Recipe for a Christmas gingerbread roll cake with jam
Today, a delicious Christmas gingerbread roll cake has made itself at home on the blog. This extraordinary cake is a fluffy sponge cake with a gingerbread note, rolled with slightly tart plum jam and an amazing gingerbread cream with white chocolate. The whole creates an incredibly Christmasy cake that no one will be able to resist! See my step-by-step recipe with photos and watch a short preparation video where I show how to make a roll cake with gingerbread cream and be sure to make this cake for the upcoming Christmas holidays.
Table of content
Christmas gingerbread roll cake recipe step by step
If you are looking for an idea for an extraordinary Christmas cake that not only tastes wonderful but also looks incredibly impressive, then you must try this recipe!
Christmas gingerbread roulade recipe with video
Wyposażenie
- Large baking pan, approximately 30/40 cm in size.
Składniki
ingredients for gingerbread cream
- 200 ml heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon gelatin (plus a little cold water)
- 2 teaspoons instant coffee (powder or granules)
- 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice
- 200 g white chocolate
- 250 g mascarpone cheese (well chilled)
ingredients for gingerbread sponge cake
- 4 egg whites (from size L eggs)
- 4 egg yolks
- 100 g sugar (half a cup)
- 100 g wheat flour (2/3 cup)
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
- 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice mix
- 4 tablespoons oil
additional ingredients
- approx 140 g plum preserves
- festive decorations
Instrukcja
How to make a gingerbread roll with cream step by step
Step 1 – initial preparation of the cream
- Start with the cream, as it will need time to cool – strongly heat the heavy cream.200 ml heavy cream
- To the hot cream, add gelatin soaked in cold water and slightly swollen – mix thoroughly.1 teaspoon gelatin
- Add instant coffee (powder) and gingerbread spice to the cream – mix.2 teaspoons instant coffee, 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice
- Break the white chocolate into pieces, add to the cream and stir until dissolved – if the mixture still has lumps, you can additionally blend it with a hand blender.200 g white chocolate
- Cool the cream with chocolate, then put it in the refrigerator to cool properly and thicken significantly – ideally for about 6 hours or even overnight.
Step 2 – prepare the gingerbread sponge cake
- Line the bottom of the sponge cake baking pan with baking paper, and leave the sides empty and dry.
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan-forced) or 180 degrees (top/bottom heat).
- Sift together flour, cocoa, and gingerbread spice through a sieve.100 g wheat flour, 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa, 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice mix
- Whisk the egg whites with sugar using a mixer – I whisk for several minutes at the highest speed of the mixer – until I get a white, thick, and shiny mixture – like for meringue.4 egg whites, 100 g sugar
- Add the egg yolks and either briefly mix on the lowest speed of the mixer, or stir with a spoon.4 egg yolks
- Add the sifted flour in portions and briefly mix with a mixer or a spoon
- Pour in the oil and briefly mix.4 tablespoons oil
- Transfer the sponge cake to the mold and level the surface.
- Bake in a preheated oven for about 12 minutes – until a dry skewer comes out clean.
Step 3 – preparing the roulade
- Lay out a clean kitchen towel on the kitchen counter and sprinkle it with powdered sugar.
- Remove the baked sponge cake from the oven, immediately cut it away from the sides of the mold with a sharp knife.
- Remove the hot sponge cake with the paper from the mold and place it upside down on the towel with powdered sugar. Gently remove the baking paper from the bottom of the sponge cake.
- Gently and carefully roll up the sponge cake into a log – together with the towel.
- Leave the cake to cool completely.
Step 5 – preparing the gingerbread cream
- Transfer the chilled white chocolate cream to a larger bowl and whisk with a mixer until fluffy for a few minutes – for me it was 3 minutes.
- Add mascarpone cheese in portions to the whipped cream and mix briefly – until combined.250 g mascarpone cheese
- Set aside about 1/3 of the cream for later decoration – I transferred it to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
Step 6 – finishing the roulade
- Lay out a larger piece of cling film on the counter.
- Carefully unroll the sponge cake from the towel – be careful not to crack it and place it on the cling film.
- Spread plum jam over the top of the sponge cake.approx 140 g plum preserves
- Spread the gingerbread cream over the sponge cake.
- Carefully – using the cling film to help – roll the sponge cake into a roulade.
- Wrap the dough in foil and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.
Step 6 – decorating the roulade
- Remove the chilled roulade from the fridge and unwrap it from the foil.
- Arrange the cake on an oblong plate.
- Decorate the top with the reserved cream.
- You can additionally sprinkle the cake with sugar sprinkles or add festive chocolates or gingerbread cookies.festive decorations
Film
Uwagi
Wartości Odżywcze
Christmas gingerbread roll cake with jam – notes
My cake today – gingerbread roll cake, is the perfect cake for Christmas. I must admit, it tasted amazing. Even my son said the cake was fantastic, and that doesn’t happen very often :) Meaning praising me and my cakes ;) That alone is a great recommendation for me, and if you love subtly gingerbread-flavored cakes with sweet cream, balanced with slightly tart plum jam, then you absolutely must bake this cake for the upcoming holidays!
The blog already features a unique chocolate Yule Log roll cake – with chocolate cream, and now this delicious roll cake with jam and gingerbread cream joins it. I recommend both for Christmas.
Ingredients necessary for preparing gingerbread roll
To prepare this cake, you will need a few basic ingredients. Below is a condensed list of products I used and possible substitutes.
- white chocolate – the base of the gingerbread cream is white chocolate; when buying it, pay attention to its weight, because manufacturers (e.g., Wedel) have understated packaging, and it’s often only 80 or 90 g of chocolate. Here, I most recommend chocolate from Lidl – from their Fin Carre brand.
- whipping cream – for me, it’s liquid cream in a carton with 30% fat content (I used Łaciata); you can also use 36% cream, but choose a liquid one, not a thick one like sour cream.
- mascarpone – this is a creamy Italian cheese, you can easily find it in every Lidl, Biedronka, and larger stores. Unfortunately, there isn’t really much to substitute it with in the cream, but as a last resort, you can use full-fat cottage cheese for cheesecakes from a tub – but a good quality one like Piątnica, or Mój Ulubiony from Wieluń – it cannot be President, or cheaper cottage cheeses from discount stores!
- gelatin – I use powdered gelatin (mine is 180 bloom); if you don’t have gelatin, you can omit it, just remember to properly and thoroughly chill the chocolate dissolved in the whipping cream so that the cream thickens well before whipping. Gelatin added to the cream makes it set faster and then hold its consistency better.
- gingerbread spice mix – as usual, I recommend preparing homemade gingerbread spice mix – preferably using my recipe ;) but if you don’t have time and ingredients for the spice mix, buy it at the store – but definitely pay attention to the ingredients! Most spice mixes contain mainly wheat flour, sometimes sugar or cocoa. Do not buy such a spice mix! You don’t need flour in your cream! Additionally, such a spice mix is not very aromatic because it contains few actual spices. Among ready-made spice mixes, I recommend the Kotanyi brand – just choose gingerbread spice mix, not mulled wine spice, because sugar is added there.
- fruit preserves – I used store-bought fruit preserves, but if you have homemade ones, they will be even better!
How to make a gingerbread roll?
To make your work on the cake easier, it’s worth dividing the preparations into stages. Due to the long chilling time of the chocolate dissolved in the whipping cream, it’s best to prepare it the evening before. Then, after preparation, put it in the fridge and let it chill overnight. The sponge cake for the roll needs to be fresh, and you need to “work” with it while it’s hot, straight out of the oven. Therefore, bake it on the day you will be assembling the entire roll.
After baking, the sponge cake needs to be rolled into a cylinder together with a kitchen towel and cooled in this manner. This will ensure it maintains its shape later and prevent the sponge cake from cracking. If you cool it flat, you will then have a big problem rolling it into a roll.
I also like to additionally chill the rolled cake (without decorations) in the fridge for an hour or two. During this time, the sponge cake and cream “settle” and the roll gains stability. Only then do I start decorating such a chilled roll. At that point, it can be served immediately or stored in the fridge.
How to store gingerbread roll?
It’s best to store the roll in the fridge – you can additionally cover it with a cake dome, or place it in a container with a lid, so it doesn’t absorb fridge odors. A properly secured roll can also be kept on the balcony if the temperature is not below 0 degrees Celsius ;)
I hope that such a festive gingerbread roll with fruit preserves and gingerbread cream will taste as good to you and your loved ones as it does to us :) If you use the recipe, I would be extremely happy if you share your impressions in a comment below the recipe.
P.S. By the way, I highly recommend following my Instagram profile, where you will also find my recipes, and you can easily save them for later.
Recommended recipes for rolls
On the blog, you’ll also find other recipes for delicious rolls with various creams. Here I recommend, among others, three such recipes—find more on the blog. Enjoy!
Popularne Przepisy
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Gingerbread Roll with Plum Jam Recipe
If you are looking for a Christmas cake recipe that will create a "WOW" effect on your holiday table, you must try this gingerbread roll. The cake is incredibly fluffy, pleasantly moist, and absolutely delicious. The combination of aromatic gingerbread spice and slightly tart plum preserves makes it the perfect dessert for Christmas.
Plus, the Swiss roll format makes this cake look truly spectacular. Decorate your roll with small festive chocolates or mini gingerbread cookies, and you will surely impress everyone!
